By JAKE BLEIBERG and PAUL J. WEBER
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Nearly 400 legislation enforcement officers rushed to a mass taking pictures at a Uvalde elementary faculty, however “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in additional than an hour of chaos earlier than the gunman who took 21 lives was lastly confronted and killed, in keeping with a damning investigative report launched Sunday.
The practically 80-page report was the primary to criticize each state and federal legislation enforcement, and never simply native authorities within the South Texas city for the bewildering inaction by closely armed officers as a gunman fired inside a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School.
“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety,” the report stated.
The gunman fired roughly 142 rounds contained in the constructing — and it’s “almost certain” that not less than 100 photographs got here earlier than any officer entered, in keeping with the report, which specified by damning element quite a few failures. Among them:
— The commander of a Border Patrol tactical group waited for a bullet-proof protect and dealing grasp key for the classroom, which can haven’t even been wanted, earlier than coming into the classroom.
— No one assumed command regardless of scores of officers, together with Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde faculty district police chief, being on the scene.
— A Uvalde Police Department officer stated he heard about 911 calls that had come inside type the classroom, and that his understanding was the officers on one aspect of the constructing knew there have been victims trapped inside. Still, nobody tried to breach the classroom
The report — probably the most full account but of the hesitant and haphazard response to the May 24 bloodbath — was written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives and launched to members of the family Sunday.
Family members of the victims in Uvalde obtained copies of the report Sunday earlier than it was launched to the general public.
“It’s a joke. They’re a joke. They’ve got no business wearing a badge. None of them do,” Vincent Salazar, grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazer, stated Sunday.
According to the report, 376 legislation enforcement officers massed on the faculty. The overwhelming majority of those that responded had been federal and state legislation enforcement. That included practically 150 U.S. Border Patrol brokers and 91 state police officers.
“Other than the attacker, the Committee did not find any ‘villains’ in the course of its investigation,” the report stated. “There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making.”
The report famous that most of the lots of of legislation enforcement responders who rushed to the college had been higher skilled and outfitted than the college district police — which the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state police power, beforehand faulted for not going into the room sooner.
“In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,” the report learn.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety didn’t instantly return a request for remark Sunday.
The report adopted weeks of closed-door interviews with greater than 40 individuals, together with witnesses and legislation enforcement who had been on the scene of the taking pictures.
Flowers that had been piled excessive within the metropolis’s central sq. had been eliminated as of Sunday, leaving a couple of stuffed animals scattered across the fountains alongside photographs of a few of the youngsters who had been killed.
No single officer has obtained as a lot scrutiny for the reason that taking pictures as Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde faculty district police chief who resigned from his newly appointed seat on the City Council after the taking pictures. Arredondo informed the committee he handled the shooter as “barricaded subject,” in keeping with the report, and defended by no means treating the scene as an active-shooter state of affairs as a result of he didn’t have visible contact with the gunman.
Arredondo additionally tried to discover a key for the school rooms, however nobody ever bothered to see if the doorways had been locked, in keeping with the report.
“Arredondo’s search for a key consumed his attention and wasted precious time, delaying the breach of the classrooms,” the report learn.
The report criticized as “lackadaisical” the strategy of the lots of of officers who surrounded the college and stated that they need to have acknowledged that Arredondo remaining within the faculty with out dependable communication was “inconsistent” with him being the scene commander. The report concluded that some officers waited as a result of they relied on dangerous info whereas others “had enough information to know better.”
An almost 80-minute hallway surveillance video printed by the Austin American-Statesman this week publicly confirmed for the primary time a hesitant and haphazard tactical response, which the pinnacle of Texas’ state police has condemned as a failure and a few Uvalde residents have blasted as cowardly.
Calls for police accountability have grown in Uvalde for the reason that taking pictures. So far, just one officer from the scene of the deadliest faculty taking pictures in Texas historical past is understood to be on depart.
The report is the results of one in every of a number of investigations into the taking pictures, together with one other led by the Justice Department. A report earlier this month by tactical consultants at Texas State University alleged {that a} Uvalde police officer had an opportunity to cease the gunman earlier than he went inside the college armed with an AR-15.
But in an instance of the conflicting statements and disputed accounts for the reason that taking pictures, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin has stated that by no means occurred. That report had been achieved on the request of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which McLaughlin has more and more criticized and accused of making an attempt to reduce the function of its troopers throughout the bloodbath.
Steve McCraw, the pinnacle of Texas DPS, has referred to as the police response an abject failure.
The committee didn’t “receive medical evidence” to point out that police breaching the classroom sooner would have saved lives, however it concluded that “it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue.”
Michael Brown, whose 9-year-old son was within the cafeteria at Robb Elementary on the day of the taking pictures and survived, got here to the committee’s information convention Sunday carrying indicators saying “ We Want Accountability” and “Prosecute Pete Arredondo.”
Brown stated he has not but learn the report however already is aware of sufficient to say that police “have blood on their hands.”
“It’s disgusting. Disgusting,” he stated. “They’re cowards.”
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Weber reported from Austin, Texas.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”